KFAR SAVA, Israel — The Jerusalem Post has reported that ten progressive Jewish groups sent a letter calling on the US House of Representatives leadership to vote on House Resolution 326, which supports the two-state solution. The resolution, which was introduced in April, is cosponsored by 132 House Democrats.
The resolution “expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that only a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can ensure Israel’s survival as a secure Jewish and democratic state and fulfill the legitimate aspirations for a Palestinian state.” The organizations’ letter expresses the sense that, “any US proposals that fail to expressly endorse a two-state solution will likely put a peaceful end to the conflict further out of reach.” Sounds terrific, no? No!
The organizations that sent the letter are Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Hashomer Hatzair, Jewish Labor Committee, J Street, National Council of Jewish Women, New Israel Fund, Partners for Progressive Israel, Reconstructing Judaism and T’ruah. Some of these groups are blatantly anti-Zionist while others are misguided so-called liberals who think they know Israel’s needs better than Israelis do. In my opinion, all of these groups harm Israel’s long term independence.
Both the Fatah and Hamas anti-Jewish political/terrorist groups, which rule the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Gaza respectively, reiterate in their founding documents the call for the destruction of Israel and the expulsion of the Jews from “Palestine.” This huge impediment to the two-state “solution” is overlooked by the before mentioned sponsors and supporters. But there are more personal and pertinent impediments as well.
For example, the mayor of a small Arab town, Deir Qaddis, close to Ramallah (capital of the PA), has been expelled from Fatah, which is also working to remove him from his position as mayor. What prompted this drastic action? Answer: Jewish citizens of Israel were invited to and attended the wedding of a coworker who lives in Deir Qaddis.
When a video of the Arab and Jewish celebrants at the wedding dancing together went viral, it was too much for Fatah. Arabs on social media condemned the wedding-goers who “danced shoulder-to-shoulder with Jewish settlers,” and Arab factions raged, threatening the villagers.
As Liat Collins wrote in her Jerusalem Post article on June 21, “The PA can’t bear to see Israelis and Palestinians being happy together. It doesn’t want to see them together, period. And it doesn’t seem to want the Palestinians to be happy. That would go against the victim culture and anti-normalization narrative carefully nurtured over the decades.”
There are many other states, organizations, and individuals who also are fixated on the “holy” two-state solution. A number are even Israelis. They think they have good intentions, but their dreams of peace are frustrated by the primary objective of Muslims – to reclaim any land that was ever under the domination of the political-religious doctrine of Islam. (These lands include Israel, Iberia, the Balkans, and other areas of Europe.)
It’s past time to give up the dream of “two states living side-by-side in peace” and find a practical alternative, if one exists. (The status quo may be the default position.) The abject failure of the Oslo Accords is the death knell of the two-state solution. The constant barrage of rockets and other destructive weapons, after the total withdrawal of the IDF and Israeli citizens from the Gaza Strip is the death knell of the “land for peace” formula. It’s futile to keep returning to an unsuccessful program.
If you want a realistic solution between Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the Middle East, give up the unworkable, failed two-state solution with its disastrous “land for peace” concomitant and educate yourself about some alternative ideas. Besides the obvious (to many) “Jordan is Palestine” solution, there are other possibilities which have been promulgated. Perhaps one of those will ultimately be successful.
